Tachycardia or pounding pulse when lying on left side

If you mean on the heart, no.
Yes, I do think I am getting more restful sleeps at the moment. But it is a fragile thing. Two years ago I was at a moderate level of ME and I had a shocking severe relapse. I have to be careful always, as even the hard won gain of getting to moderate level and staying there - is still a delicate affair.

I'm going to update this thread as my earlier posts here were prior to starting treatment for Bartonella. For whatever reasons, after treating Bartonella with antibiotics and antimicrobial herbals for 5 1/2 months, the heart-pounding-while-lying down is almost gone.

Interesting thread, MeSci!! I have the same pounding on the left side. I wondered what that was about, I just thought everyone must do it.

I do not have any pounding if I lie on my side in a recliner (which puts my head/chest just slightly up). And I also am OK lying on my left side later in the night - the pounding seems to subside during the night.

I have checked my BP lying down and it's usually low - systolic in the low 90's and diastolic in the 50's. HR can be in the 50's or 60's.

I thought perhaps my heart just doesn't like be squished by the other side of my chest. I am normal weight BTW, but I just thought it was 'happier' having less body pressure squeezing it. I don't know who hit me in the head with a shovel, it's just the way I think sometimes.

This left side thing is all very strange but I get it too, just not all the time. I often 'want' to lie on my left but have to keep turning to my right to escape the pounding. That doesn't feel comfortable so I turn back to my left again - and so on. Mostly, though, I can lie on my left side without any problems.

Go figure.

Being more aware of the pounding because you are lying on the same side as your heart seems a reasonable explanation to me but why doesn't it happen all the time? And when it is happening, why is the rate higher than when you turn back to the right?

I'm going to update this thread as my earlier posts here were prior to starting treatment for Bartonella. For whatever reasons, after treating Bartonella with antibiotics and antimicrobial herbals for 5 1/2 months, the heart-pounding-while-lying down is almost gone.

Sushi

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Very interesting. Can I ask what herbs you were taking? Did you ever get night sweats and, if so, do you think they were related?

The "killer herbs" I am taking are Samento, Banderol and Cumanda. Cumanda every day, Samento and Banderol rotated on a schedule after the first 2 months of just Samento and Cumanda.

I take Smilax, Pinella, Parsley, and Burbur as support herbs. I am also taking the abx Rifampin.

Sushi

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"Killer herbs" indeed. I took Samento last year at a period when I had been getting better and better all the time and I had the most horrendous cognitive crash (physically bad but cognitively just horrible.) It scares me - as do the implications.

Thanks for the info and I'll look into these. Glad to hear they helped you.

"Killer herbs" indeed. I took Samento last year at a period when I had been getting better and better all the time and I had the most horrendous cognitive crash (physically bad but cognitively just horrible.) It scares me - as do the implications.

Thanks for the info and I'll look into these. Glad to hear they helped you.

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I started Samento with 1/2 drop and that "dropped me" for 3 days! I started taking support herbs and restarted Samento at 1/8th drop, and from there I have been able to work up slowly without dire consequences.

Guess we are off-topic here, so if we want to discuss it more let's move to another thread. Oh, and re: sweats--I got them in the early days of both Rifampin and Samento.

My tachycardia and low oxygen saturation while lying on anything other than my left side is also gone. It started disappearing intermittently after a couple weeks of IV ceftriaxone, and now after a full 6 weeks of that and 6 weeks of of IV azithromycin, it seems completely gone.

My only guess is that swelling of some sort was causing it, possible due to the bacteria (Borrelia) or as an immune reaction to the bacteria.

My tachycardia and low oxygen saturation while lying on anything other than my left side is also gone. It started disappearing intermittently after a couple weeks of IV ceftriaxone, and now after a full 6 weeks of that and 6 weeks of of IV azithromycin, it seems completely gone.

My only guess is that swelling of some sort was causing it, possible due to the bacteria (Borrelia) or as an immune reaction to the bacteria.

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I wonder if it's anything to do with the lack of nitric oxide discussed here and in Part 1 of the series.

How would that caused reduced oxygen saturation in some positions while lying down, but not while lying down in a different position?

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Not sure, but I was thinking that perhaps the constriction induced by putting pressure on the heart and heart-related veins couldn't be adequately countered if there is insufficient nitric oxide? Just a thought.

Decided to check bp and hr the other night/morning. Systolic bp was high in all lying positions, no tachycardia despite pounding.

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Maybe like this: you get hypotension when lying, then immediately get a reflex of extra strong cardiac contractions and bigger expansions during filling. Like @leela said. This happens no matter how you lie, except that when lying on the left, your thoracic cage is compressed on that side and so you feeI it then and not otherwise.

Also, since your heart is adequately compensating, your BP stays high/normal. There is therefore no need for increased rate. Why are you getting increased stroke volume and not increased rate? Maybe because you are somehow overly vasodilated.

Maybe like this: you get hypotension when lying, then immediately get a reflex of extra strong cardiac contractions and bigger expansions during filling. Like @leela said. This happens no matter how you lie, except that when lying on the left, your thoracic cage is compressed on that side and so you feeI it then and not otherwise.

Also, since your heart is adequately compensating, your BP stays high/normal. There is therefore no need for increased rate. Why are you getting increased stroke volume and not increased rate? Maybe because you are somehow overly vasodilated.

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Seems more likely that I am usually overly vasoconstricted, in view of the extremely high blood pressure for which I was taking ACE inhibitors until recently - I switched to a beta blocker on 8th November. I still get a bit of pounding/palpitations when lying on my left side, but as my heart rate is considerably slower now (sometimes under 60) it's less troublesome. Diastolic pressure is now much better-controlled but systolic still goes too high too often.

I haven't tested my bp when lying down since changing meds. Will do so sometime.